Dance With Me
by NonyMouse
Summary: Troy has liked Ryan for a while, so he decides to ask him for dance lessons to help him in the play, to bring them closer together. it will have RyanTroy SLASH, so don't like don't read.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own HSM.

**AN:** I know I should be writing my other fic, but this one just popped into my head and I had to write it. Like my other stuff, this is does not have a beta, so there may be a few mistakes.

Ch. 1 The Request

Troy's POV

Troy Bolton had a plan. It was a perfect plan that could not possibly go wrong. It was a plan to get Ryan Evans, the boy that Troy had had a crush on since his freshman year.

Nobody knew that Troy was gay. He knew what would happen if he came out, and he did not want to face that. This meant that if he wanted to go out with a guy as obviously gay as Ryan, he would need a reason that would not make people suspicious of why they were hanging out, and he would have to plan his seduction of the drama king carefully. He did not want to make Ryan suspicious of a set up, either. He needed to prove that his feelings were real, which was a lot easier said than done. Troy was generally not a very patient person, but with Ryan he knew he was going to have to be.

The play had given Troy the perfect idea.

Troy put his plan into action the morning after call-backs as soon as he saw Ryan at his locker, which, thankfully, was nowhere near Sharpay's locker. He was pretty sure she would have found a way to mess up his plan. Slinking up to Ryan, Troy coughed to get his attention.

"What? Troy, what are you doing by my locker?" Ryan asked, turning around.

"I wanted to talk to you about the play," Troy answered. "You may have noticed that when Gabriella and I were auditioning, we didn't actually dance."

"So?" Ryan prompted, looking confused.

"Well, the thing is, we didn't dance because I don't know how to dance. Gabriella knows how to dance, but she's always too busy with her science stuff to really help me, so I was wondering if you could help me learn." 'Not entirely true,' he thought, 'but Ryan doesn't need to know that.' "I would really appreciate it if you would," he continued, putting on his best 'I'm Cute and You Know You Want To' look.

Unfortunately, Ryan appeared to be immune to it. "Why should I help you?" he asked in what Troy felt was a very good Sharpay impression. "After all, you auditioned with the knowledge that you would have to dance. If you suddenly realized that you can't fulfill your role, that's your problem. Why should I help you when I can just take your place?"

Troy had not thought of that. "Is there anything I can do that would make you want to help me?" he asked hopefully.

"Well," Ryan responded, "I might be interested in helping you if you promise never to try out for a play again." He smirked in a decidedly evil manner that had Troy willing to promise Ryan anything he wanted.

"Sure," he said, hoping Ryan wouldn't notice the breathless quality of his voice. "I only really wanted to do this once, just to try it out. If you help me, I swear I'll never try out for any more musicals."

"Fine, but you're going to have to work hard. I won't help you if you won't give it your best effort. Meet me after school and we'll plan some times to meet."

Ryan didn't even give Troy a chance to answer before he turned and walked away. As Troy watched him walk away, a huge grin broke out on his face, and practically skipped to his own locker. 'Don't worry, Ryan, I plan to give one hundred and _ten_ percent on this project.' He was really quite lucky it was so early and no one else was around, because his whistling and skipping might have given away the secret that he was going to such lengths to hide.

Ryan's POV

When Ryan woke up on the day after call backs, he was not his normally cheerful self. He had been shocked when he and Sharpay lost to two people who had never even been in a single production before. It just wasn't fair. He and Sharpay worked really hard for years to get to the place they were at. Troy and Gabriella just entered on a whim. It just went to show that life was really, _really_ unfair sometimes.

His mind was still on the subject of plays when he got to school, so when Troy made his proposal, Ryan said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be that he wanted Troy to stay away from musicals. Now, walking to Sharpay's locker, he wanted to kick himself. The reason for this soon became apparent.

"Hey fag, how's it feel to get beaten in your stupid musical by a basketball star? You and your bitchy sister must really suck."

Ricky Marlow was a member of the basketball team with a severe hatred of gay people, and his locker was right on the way to Sharpay's locker from Ryan's locker. Ricky's two cronies, Marc and David, laughed loudly at his comment, before advancing on Ryan. They grabbed his arms while Ricky punched him in the stomach, laughing. He may have been a bully, but he was still smart enough to hit where it wouldn't leave a visible mark. Ryan put on the mask he had taught himself to wear and tried to think of something else.

"What, don't I get a response, fag?" Ryan's silence seemed to anger Ricky, and he punched Ryan in the stomach again. Turning to his friends, he said, "Come on, let's get to class. The fag isn't worth any more of my time." They left, and Ryan continued on his way. Once, he had tried taking a different route, but the beating he got after school that day made sure he would never try to avoid them again. When he reached Sharpay's locker, Ryan put on his customary happy face and composed himself.

"Hey, Sharpay!" He greeted her with a smile.

"Hey, Ryan!" She turned and smiled at him, and he knew he could never tell her about what happened when she wasn't around. She was too wonderful to hurt, and she _would_ get hurt if she got involved. Most people called her the Ice Queen, but Ryan loved her and thought she was just a unique person. If other people couldn't see that, that was their problem.

"Come on," she said. "I promised Zeke we would meet him at seven fifteen, and now we're late because you took so long at long at your locker." Although his happy smile never slipped, Ryan cringed inside. First he got beat up, and now he got to watch his twin sister fawn over Zeke. He had been happy when she finally got over Troy, but had since come to the conclusion that watching her with Zeke was even worse. At least Troy had never responded to her advances. And when the day was over, he would have to spend time in the company of a stuck up jock who couldn't dance. The day was definitely not turning out well, and it had barely even started.

Ryan sighed and resigned himself to another bad day.

**AN:** So, what do you think? This story just popped into my head, so I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it and ideas will be appreciated.

Hopefully I'll update Revelations within the next few days.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:**YAY! I can update again!My computer was having issues, but they arefixed now.Thank you to everyone who reviewed; you guys rock. And much, much thanks to Dragon Pants for betaing and giving me ideas.

**Warning:** Sorry, I forgot to put this in the first chapter, so here it is. This will be slash. Although, if you haven't figured that out yet, I feel bad for you. Feel free to flame if you don't like that. Fire is pretty.

Ch. 2 Lesson 1: Rhythms

As Troy drove over to Ryan's house that afternoon, he had to constantly tell himself not to be nervous. He had had a crush on Ryan for a while, and now that he was finally acting on his feelings, he found himself wondering if he really wanted to go through with it. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of Ryan's door. He almost just turned around and left, but then he would have to tell Ryan why he never showed up, and that would be even worse than just going through with his plan. 'Or I _could _just avoid him forever. It's not like I see him that much, anyway,' he thought, but he immediately discarded that idea. Avoiding Ryan would not make his feelings go away.

He knocked on the door, and when it was opened, felt his jaw drop. Ryan was wearing a t-shirt. 'Yum,' Troy thought, suppressing his desire to drool with difficulty.

"You're wearing a t-shirt," he said, making Ryan role his eyes.

"I do wear them sometimes, you know," he replied, sounding exasperated in a way that Troy found incredibly sexy and made him think of things that did not involve either t-shirts or dancing.

Thankfully, Troy didn't blush easily, or he would have been bright red at that point.

"So… where are we practicing?" asked Troy, following Ryan into his house.

"The basement," Ryan answered shortly.

Troy followed Ryan to his basement and was looking around when Ryan turned and began questioning him. "So, Troy, how much do you actually know about dancing?"

"Um, nothing," Troy responded.

"Well, do you at least know how to follow rhythms?" Ryan looked very unhopeful.

"Well, um, no. Not really," responded Troy, scuffing his shoe against the floor.

'This is gonna be a long day,' thought Ryan. "Okay," he replied out loud, picking something up off a table, "this is called a metronome. I'm going to set it to a nice, easy beat, and I want you to clap on the beats."

"That means every time it makes a ticking noise," he added, seeing Troy's look of confusion. Setting the metronome to a slow tempo, Ryan stepped back to watch Troy.

Troy took a moment to listen to the tempo, and then began to clap in time to it. He thought he was doing pretty well and was just beginning to grin when he heard Ryan yell out, "Stop!"

Ryan was rubbing his ears and grimacing, making Troy cringe. He hadn't been that bad, had he?

"That was, to put it bluntly, painful," Ryan said once he had recovered from the horrors of Troy trying to keep time. "If you can't even keep time with a metronome, we have _a lot_ to work on. Are you sure you don't want to just let me take over your role. I promise I wouldn't mind." Ryan had a hopeful look on his face, but it was replaced with a resigned one when Troy responded.

"I can do it," Troy said. "I just need to work harder. I'm sure that with your help, I'll be great in no time."

Ryan sighed. "Fine."

For the next hour, they worked on getting Troy to recognize a beat. After the first half hour, Ryan had gotten bored with the metronome, pronounced Troy good enough, and they had moved on to trying to find the beat in a song. So far, Troy was still failing. He managed to hit the beat a few times, but Ryan wasn't sure if this was because Troy was improving, or if it was because he was clapping so erratically that he was bound to be right occasionally by default. Maybe he should just give up and let Troy lose the lead. After all, he didn't even really want to help Troy. Although, it was mildly amusing watching Troy struggle with something that had always come easily to Ryan.

"Look, Troy," he said, "we've been working for an hour, and…" at that point Ryan made the mistake of looking Troy in the eyes. Troy really was trying, and for some reason Ryan found himself unable to take away the happy, hopeful look in those eyes. Without really realizing what he was doing, Ryan altered what he had been about to say, instead finishing with, "… and I think it's about time we took a break. You've been working hard, and I think we're both getting tired of rhythms."

'Why did I just say that?' Ryan wondered as he watched Troy smile and respond, "Yeah, that would be nice. Maybe I'll do better after I take a break and do something else for a while."

"I'll go get us some food," said Ryan, suddenly desperate to get away from that smile. "You can wait here." When he got upstairs, he leaned back against a wall and sank down to the floor. He didn't understand why he had suddenly felt a need to escape from Troy's presence.

Calming himself down, he thought about what was going on. He couldn't possibly be falling for Troy. Troy was just a stupid jock who only cared about himself. Ryan would never fall for someone like that.

'He is cute, though,' he thought. Suddenly, he thought of something. 'That's it! I only like him because he's cute! Everyone's allowed to be shallow sometimes. All I have is a shallow attraction to his body. I am not falling for him.' Keeping these thoughts in mind, Ryan got off the floor and went into the kitchen to get some snacks, moving quickly so Troy wouldn't start to wonder what was taking so long.

He was considerably calmer when he got back downstairs, convinced that everything he felt was purely physical and meant absolutely nothing. There was no need to do anything about it, and it would probably go away within a few days.

**AN: **Well, what did you think? I'm trying not to go too fast, but I'm a very impatient person, and my writing tends to reflect that. Let me know if you think I'm moving too quickly with Ryan's feelings, and I'll try to make things slower.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and thank you especially to Dragon Pants for betaing this. All of you are awesome.

Ch. 3 Detention

The next day in school, Troy found himself paying attention even less than he usually did. All he could think about was Ryan, and how he had actually been alone with him for over an hour. Sure, he had failed his first lesson horribly, but still, he got to be with Ryan! Troy had practically skipped home after Sharpay came back from her date with Zeke, and Ryan pronounced the lesson done for the day. Lost in thoughts of Ryan, Troy didn't hear Ms. Darbus calling him until she was standing right over him.

"Mr. Bolton, since you seem to feel that my class is not important enough to pay attention to, you can join me after school in detention." With that, she stalked back up to the front of the class amidst a chorus of sniggers.

Feeling a nudge against his arm, Troy looked down and saw that Chad was passing him a note. Attempting to be discreet, Troy opened the note and read it. _Dude, where were you? You were totally spacing out, there. _

Troy was extremely glad at that moment that he didn't blush easily. Thinking quickly, he wrote the first thing that came to mind. _I was thinking about Gabriella. Rehearsals for the musical start next week, and I was just thinking about how that means we'll get to spend more time together._

He passed the note back and hoped that Chad accepted his explanation. When he got the note back, he had just begun reading it when he was interrupted by Ms. Darbus' voice.

"Note passing shall not be tolerated in my classroom!"

Troy looked up and shoved the note in his backpack, hoping she wouldn't ask to see it. He started to stammer out an apology, when he realized that she wasn't talking to him.

"Mr. Evans, you have earned yourself a place in detention alongside Mr. Bolton. The next person I find not paying attention will find themselves with two detentions!"

Troy immediately stopped paying attention, although he was careful to keep his eyes facing forwards and an interested look on his face, this time.

He had detention with Ryan! A whole fifteen minutes of detention with Ryan! He smiled.

**Later, in detention**

Troy's happiness had evaporated by the time his detention rolled around. Gabriella had insisted on coming with him, and when he got to the auditorium, he saw that Sharpay had accompanied Ryan. They were talking together and working on making some paper machè scenery at the back of the auditorium.

Troy was waved over to another part of the auditorium by Ms. Darbus, where she instructed him and Gabriella to paint the scenery that had already been made and stacked up a fair distance from where Ryan was working.

As he painted, Troy's attention continually wandered over to Ryan, and he found himself smiling whenever Ryan would laugh or smile and wishing that he was the one who made Ryan smile. Gabriella chatted next to him, and he would occasionally smile and nod in her direction, but then his attention would once more be captured by Ryan's voice as he spoke to Sharpay. After a few minutes, it seemed that Ryan was done with one of the things he was making, a rather large star that Troy supposed served the same purpose as the giant moon that he and Gabriella had danced around for their audition. Watching Ryan struggle, Troy got up and grabbed a part of the star right before it could fall.

"Thanks," Ryan said gratefully.

"Sure, no problem." Troy smiled at Ryan, and was thrilled to see Ryan return the smile, albeit hesitantly.

When they got the star back to Gabriella, she took it and gave Troy a curious look. Shifting uncomfortably under her gaze, Troy accidentally bumped into Ryan.

"Sorry," he said, looking at Ryan.

"It's okay," Ryan said, but Troy had seen him grimace in pain, as though he had already been hurt before Troy bumped into him. He was unable to think on this for very long, though, because Gabriella chose that moment to say something.

"Troy, can I ask you something?"

Nervously, Troy responded with, "Sure, what is it?"

Pulling him aside, Gabriella turned to Troy and asked, "Troy, do you have a crush on Ryan?"

Troy started and stammered out, "N-no, of course not! Why would you think that?"

"Well," she replied, "I've actually had my suspicions about you for a while. I mean, you never once kissed me when we were trying out for the musical, and I've noticed how you never respond to Sharpay's flirting, _and _I haven't seen you flirt with any of the other girls in school, so… _do_ you have a crush on Ryan?"

Troy was caught. It was true that they had never gotten together, even though almost everyone expected them to, and Troy didn't flirt very often. "Well… maybe."

Gabriella squealed, surprising Troy, and hugged him. "Aww, that's so sweet. Are you going to ask him out?"

To say that Troy was surprised would be an understatement. He had not expected her to act like that at all. Thankful for her positive reaction, he replied, "Not yet, but I have asked him to teach me how to dance for the musical."

"Well, if you need any advice, I will be here for you, Troy."

They walked back over to the objects they were supposed to painting, and this time Gabriella was fully aware of the looks that Troy gave Ryan.

**AN:** So, Troy's getting a bit obsessed and Gabriella's nice. Love it; hate it? I'll never know if you don't review.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to Dragon Pants for beta reading.  
For anyone who wondered about Ryan being hurt in the last chapter: that was supposed to imply that he is still being harassed by the people in the first chapter.

Ch. 4 Lesson 2: Dancing for Beginners

Over the next week, Ryan got increasingly tired of attempting to teach Troy the basics of rhythm. So, when Troy came over that Friday, he decided to skip strait to the actual dancing in hope that Troy could follow dance moves without being able to follow a beat. He had managed the singing part in his auditions pretty well, which showed that he didn't necessarily need any knowledge of the basics of music to sing. Maybe that would hold true for dancing, too.

"Okay Troy, today we are actually going to attempt to dance. I will show you a few moves and explain them to you, then you will try to copy me. Got it?"

Troy nodded and moved off to the side of the area Ryan had cleared out to practice dancing in. Ryan walked him through the first few moves of "Bop to the Top", and then told Troy to do them while he watched. Once Troy had the first moves down, they moved onto the next set, and repeated the procedure. After they had gone through the entire routine in that manner, Ryan told Troy to attempt the entire song, moving slowly to be certain that each move was exactly right. Ryan would take the female part when it was necessary.

Only a few moves in, however, and Troy had already gotten off track.

"No, that's not how you do it at all!" Ryan cried, halting Troy. "Look, I'll show you the dance, just to refresh your memory, and then you can try again." He pushed Troy out of the way and began to dance.

As Troy watched Ryan demonstrate the entire routine, he couldn't help but stare at how good he looked while dancing. He moved so fluidly, and his face lit up. It was obvious he loved it. The passion he put into even the simplest moves gave them a meaning they otherwise would have lacked. Even without music, Ryan moved with a natural grace. He created his own music, and Troy was entranced.

Ryan noticed Troy zone out, and was annoyed that the other boy was staring blankly into space. If he wasn't going to pay attention, there was no reason for Ryan to try to teach him anything. Troy was still a horrible dancer, and the play was only a month away. He did not have time to not pay attention.

'He is kinda cute like that though,' Ryan thought absently, not really acknowledging the thought.

Watching Troy, Ryan didn't notice he was slowly moving more and more of his concentration off the dance moves and onto Troy.

Troy saw Ryan's concentration falter, and watched in horror as he ran into a table and fell over onto the floor with a crash.

"Ryan," Troy yelled, running over to him to see if he was okay. Ryan was lying on the floor, groaning. Seeing him, Troy was struck by the sudden urge to giggle. Ryan had the cutest expression of indignant annoyance on his face. And, he was grumbling to himself.

Troy grabbed Ryan's hand to help him up, and felt his breath catch. Ryan's shirt had ridden up on the left side, and where Troy would have expected to see smooth, pale skin, there was instead a nasty looking bruise.

"Ryan, what happened? Are you okay?" Troy's hand moved down to brush the spot where the bruise was and Ryan flinched away, yanking his shirt down and avoiding Troy's eyes.

"I'm fine; I just hit the table pretty hard. It'll be gone in no time. Don't worry about me. It was really nothing at all." Ryan realized he was babbling, and took a deep breath. When he spoke again, it was in a calmer voice.

"We should be worrying about you, not me. The play is in a month, and at the rate you're going, you might not be ready for a year. You have to pay attention or you're wasting my time, okay? Now, we'll start again from the top, and this time, don't zone out."

They spent the rest of the afternoon going over every last move in "Bob to the Top", until Troy could complete the entire thing without a single mishap. By the time Sharpay got home from her date with Zeke, the signal that it was time for Troy to go home, he was thoroughly worn out. He felt like he did when his dad had the basketball team work extra hard after a lost game. The realization that Ryan and Sharpay did this much work just for their auditions gave him a whole new respect for the duo. And that nasty bruise of Ryan's couldn't make things very easy for him, either. Troy was pretty sure it was not from Ryan's collision with the table.

He went home that day with more than just dancing on his mind. Ryan's bruise had looked more than a few seconds old, but if he had just given an honest explanation, Troy would have left the subject alone. His bad attempts to dodge Troy's questions, however, had Troy wondering what was really going on. Ryan was hiding something, and whatever it was he was hiding was hurting him. Troy was determined to figure out why.

**Scene Change**

Sharpay was worried about her brother.

When she had first found out that he was giving Troy dance lessons, she had been furious. Why should he help the one who had taken away their spotlight? Why shouldn't he just take Troy's place if it turned out that Troy was unfit for a spot in a musical? Why was he being nice to the one who had ruined their perfect record of seventeen starring roles in a row?

Ryan's explanation of what they were getting out of it (that Troy would not try out for anymore musicals), only served to fuel her anger. After all, if he was a horrible dancer, Ms. Darbus would have been likely to think twice before casting him in anymore roles anyway.

Then she saw them together after Troy's first lesson.

Sharpay could always tell what her twin was feeling just by looking at him, unless he was actively trying to hide. Seeing him standing with Troy that day she knew that Ryan was falling for Troy. She worried now that he was setting himself up for disappointment. Troy had never given a hint that he was gay or even bisexual, and Sharpay didn't want to see her brother get hurt. He had been hurt before by guys who toyed with his emotions and then turned out to be straight. He always came back to her after these disasters. She would be strong for him, even though it hurt her, too, seeing the way they made him feel.

Sharpay tried to talk to him after one lesson, but he had brushed away her concerns with laughter, telling her he felt nothing for Troy. Knowing it would be useless, she didn't argue further, but still she worried.

Though most people did not realize it, Ryan could be incredibly stubborn when he wanted to be. If he said he was not falling for Troy, then no amount of arguing on her part would make him admit it, until he was ready. These lessons could serve no purpose except to strengthen his feelings for when he did finally admit to having them, though. His stubbornness was going to get him in trouble then. She could only hope that Troy would nice about it.

'If you hurt my brother, Troy, I will hunt you down and make you pay,' was Sharpay's last thought before going to bed that night.

**AN:** So, what did you think? I'll never know if you don't review!


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Special thanks to Dragon Pants, too, for being an awesome beta.  
I'm sorry about how long it's been taking me to update, but they will start coming faster now. I'm pretty sure my muse has returned.

Ch 5 Unwelcome Help

The following Monday found Troy Bolton wandering around the halls of East High searching for all the members of the basketball team. Practice for that day had been cancelled because Troy's dad could not be there, and Troy, as the coach's son, had to tell everyone.

It was mostly Troy's fault, too, which had put him in a bad mood. Troy had been practicing basketball with his dad the day before, just like they always did on the weekends and after school. However, when Troy was going up for a lay-up, he collided with his dad, knocking them both to the ground. Now his dad had a sprained ankle, and the doctor had told him to stay to home and rest for a day or two, leaving Troy to his current task.

Spotting one of his team members, Troy made his way over to him, scowling when he realized who it was. He didn't _hate _Ricky Marlow, but he didn't like him either. Ricky was the kind of insecure person who couldn't stand criticism and always needed a few people to be stand behind him and give him mindless support. Troy put up with him only because he was a great basketball player, and sometimes he could be fun, when he wasn't being a jerk. Thankfully, he was alone at the moment.

"Hey Ricky, there's not going to be practice, today; Coach can't be here." He was about to turn around and get away when Ricky started talking. Sighing, Troy turned back to him.

"It's about time your dad realized we've already won the championship and don't need to practice anymore. We don't have anymore games, so there's no point in doing anything. Dude, your dad can be so gay sometimes." Troy's patience was wearing thin, and he was about ready to punch the idiot, when Ricky's next words stopped him. "He's almost worse than that Evans kid." Ricky pointed behind Troy, who turned and let out a little surprised sound.

Ryan had been trying to sneak by right behind him.

"Hey, fag, guess what; there's someone worse than you. You should be proud that you're no longer on the bottom of the social…social…thing." Ricky smirked and would have continued, but he was cut off by Troy.

"Ricky, shut up," Troy said coldly. "Ryan's a great person, which is more than can be said about you. And don't insult my family, either. My dad just wants to keep us in the best shape we can be in, and he is not gay, although I wouldn't think it was very insulting to point it out if he was. Gay guys are just guys who happen to like other guys. Really, when it comes down to it, they're just people who happen to like other people, the same as everyone else. I'd be a lot more scared of someone who likes you than a guy who likes other guys."

"Jeez, Troy," Ricky sneered, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a queer, yourself. If you want to hang out with the fag, then go ahead. Just don't say I didn't warn you when everyone starts thinking you're one, too." Giving Troy one last glare, he walked away down the hall.

A fuming Troy turned towards Ryan, to find that the smaller boy was giving him a confused and for some reason slightly angry look. Shrugging it off, Troy spoke. "Ryan, if he's been bothering you, you should tell someone. You can't just let him talk like that to you."

"And who exactly would I tell, Troy? Who here would actually listen to me and be able to do something about what I tell them? Why do you even care, anyway? Are you afraid to lose your dancing teacher? Well guess what, if I can't teach you, I won't be able to take over from you either, so it won't matter." Ryan gazed at Troy, the anger in his eyes more pronounced.

"I, well," began Troy weakly, but he was interrupted by Ryan.

You what, Troy? You don't care? Look, I don't need you to stick up for me. If I'm supposed to be your good deed of the day, please find someone else to help, because I don't want your pity. I'm fine on my own. I don't need to talk to anyone, and I would appreciate it if you didn't either." With that, Ryan continued on the way he had originally been going, leaving a shocked Troy staring after him.

'What did I do wrong?' he wondered. Everything had been going so well, and now suddenly there was this. Sure, he was still a terrible dancer, but other than that, Ryan had been warming up to Troy, or at least seeming to. He could not understand why Ryan had been so offended that Troy wanted to help. It was beginning to seem like the more time Troy spent around Ryan, the more confused he became.

Ryan almost never spoke during school, but once he started teaching something, he didn't hesitate to speak up. At school he seemed like a pushover, but underneath his calm exterior he was tougher than Troy would have believed. When he was angry he could be as forceful as anyone. Everything Troy saw made him fall further into Ryan, and he was determined to make Ryan like him. He would not tell anyone about the harassment for now, but he would be there if Ryan ever needed him.

**Scene Change**

Ryan hated how Troy made him feel. Just when he was beginning to succeed in telling himself he didn't like the jock, Troy would go and do something sweet like standing up for him. It was not what he was supposed to do at all. Troy was supposed to be on Ricky's side, not his. He couldn't possibly actually care about Ryan. Liking him would be a mistake. At least, that's what Ryan kept telling himself. He refused to believe otherwise.

Walking behind Sharpay to first period, he told himself that he had not been overreacting to Troy. Troy didn't care about him; he just wanted someone to pity so he could feel good about himself. It was not at all romantic that Troy stood up for him the way he did.

He could tell that Sharpay was aware of his preoccupation and was worried about him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. She was probably still under the mistaken impression that Ryan cared about Troy, and Ryan didn't want another lecture. Her twin sense might usually allow her to know exactly how he felt, but this time she was way off. He did not have any feeling for Troy other than annoyance for the self-absorbed, stupid, graceless jock. Just because he thought Troy was cute and sweet and funny and drop dead gorgeous, with his shaggy brown hair and blue eyes that showed his every emotion and could make Ryan smile just by glowing with a happy light, did not mean that Ryan was falling for him. In fact, he wasn't even going to think about him anymore that day.

**AN:** What did you think? I would have used a canon character for the villain, but I couldn't see any of the canon characters acting like that, so I made up an OC. I tried to make him more than a boring, two dimensional character, so hopefully you didn't hate him (as a character; you're supposed to dislike him as a person). If you did, then that's okay; review and tell me why so I can improve.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** Thank you to all of my reviewers.

Ch. 6 Worries

Troy worried about Ryan. The boy's claims that he wasn't hurt were so obviously false, but he refused to admit it. Troy would never have guessed that such a small and quiet boy could be so stubborn and immovable. Every time Troy tried to bring up Ricky, Ryan would close up and shut him out completely. Troy was determined not to let him do the same today during their practice today, though. No matter what, Troy was going to get the story from the smaller boy.

Thoughts of this plagued Troy throughout his and Ryan's practice session, causing him to be regress. They had finally made it to the point where Troy could complete "Bob to the Top" without mishap and moved on to "What I've Been Looking For," but today Troy could not seem to get into it. He kept making mistakes on simple parts that he had previously mastered, prompting Ryan into frustration. Finally, Ryan could take no more.

"What is wrong with you today, Troy?" Ryan placed his hands on his hips and glared.

"Ryan," Troy began, "I know that there is more to the Ricky thing than you're telling me." Pleading eyes gazed at Ryan, but they had no effect.

"God, Troy! There is nothing going on." Ryan rolled his eyes and turned away, but Troy was not about to let the subject drop so easily.

"Even if you don't want to tell me," he said more firmly, "you have to tell someone. You can't just deal with this on your own, but you can't get help if you don't speak up. I just want to help you." Troy's worried tone caught Ryan's attention, but he still would not give in.

"I told you already, Troy; I don't need your help." His constant denial was beginning to make Troy feel as though he was hitting his head against a brick wall, but he was stubborn, too.

Thinking about ways to make Ryan talk, Troy asked, "What about Sharpay? Have you told her? She could help you, and she's your twin. You must have at least told her."

Ryan walked right up to Troy. "I have not told Sharpay, and don't you dare tell her, either. She does not need to know." Troy would have found Ryan intimidating, but he was distracted by the boy's proximity. It was doing things to him that he didn't especially want the smaller boy to notice when he was in such a bad mood. Troy didn't think it would be very beneficial for him if Ryan realized the reaction his closeness was eliciting. Therefore he was thankful when Ryan turned away without looking down. Breathing a quite sigh of relief, he decided to once more let the matter drop for the moment.

Unsure of what to say or do next, Troy was the necessity of thinking of something by the arrival of Sharpay. Sharpay, noticing the angry look on her twin's face, voiced her concern immediately. "Ryan, are you okay? What's going on?"

Troy opened his mouth to speak, but Ryan beat him to it. "Nothing is wrong. Troy and I just had a disagreement, right Troy?"

Sharpay took the bait immediately. She rounded on Troy and began berating him, not giving him a chance to defend himself.

"How dare you upset my brother. He deigned to help you when he could have let you fail, and this is how you respond? You wanted him to be your teacher, and when someone is your teacher you listen to them. You don't disagree with anything they say, even if you don't like it. I was against this from the start, but my brother thought it would be okay, so I let him teach you. If you are going to make him angry, though, then you can leave. My brother is a wonderful person who does not need any shit from you or anyone else. Apologize to him, NOW." By the time she finished speaking, Sharpay had backed Troy into a wall.

Troy eyes were wide and he wore an expression of shock. Sharpay had never gotten angry at him before, and he found it to be a decidedly unpleasant experience. Looking over to Ryan, he stuttered out, "S-sorry, Ryan."

Ryan smirked triumphantly at Troy, who was still too surprised by Sharpay's venom to really notice. Sharpay herself was still glaring, but it lessened when Troy apologized.

"Good," she said suddenly, "now, continue on with your practicing. Let's see how far along you've come, Troy." With that, she sat down imperiously upon the sofa and looked expectantly at her twin and Troy, who, surprised by her abrupt change in attitude, were still standing in the same places, unmoving. "Well," she snapped, "move."

Ryan jumped, and moved over to Troy, dragging him into the middle of the room.

"He's learned "Bop to the Top," he said nervously. "He can show you that."

"Okay, let's see it, then."

Troy began the dance, but Sharpay kept throwing him off. She had the air of a hawk watching a mouse, and Troy found it to be even more distracting than her twin could be. After the fifth time he messed up, he stopped and looked at her apologetically.

"Um, Sharpay, could not stare at me so… intensely, please?" Sharpay didn't even respond, and Troy sighed and began the dance again.

Ryan couldn't bear to watch. Hoping desperately that Sharpay wouldn't blame him for how awful Troy was doing, he sat down next to her. "Troy's not really this bad, you know," Ryan whispered as Troy made another stunning mistake. "He's just not used to someone watching. I think you're throwing him off." Ryan winced, knowing that his explanation was probably just going to make him Sharpay's next target.

And his fears proved true. "People are going to be watching him when he performs on stage, Ryan. If I throw him off, he's got no hope when he does it for real in the play."

When Troy finally went home that night, he felt humiliated. He hadn't managed to get Ryan to talk, and his performing had been awful in front of Sharpay. 'Hopefully she won't blame Ryan. Ryan's a wonderful teacher,' he thought to himself. Making a vow to do better, he drifted off to sleep, into dreams of dancing and bruises and angry blonds.

**AN:** This chapter is dedicated to Ellie (OCP), because it was her birthday yesterday. Happy birthday!


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